Abstract The recent English (national) curriculum change process in Aotearoa New Zealand has been an extraordinary episode in English curriculum history and indeed in curriculum inquiry more generally. Two such major policy documents in little over two years represents an exemplary instance of English curriculum politics. This paper provides an account of this episode from an ‘outsider’ perspective: the point of view of an English curriculum scholar from outside New Zealand. It reviews the change process in the period at issue, and the challenge of changing English in New Zealand, and considers this with reference to the knowledge debate in English teaching more broadly. It also seeks to analyse the specific role and significance of Elizabeth Rata in this regard, as a central figure in the episode, and indeed a ‘primary definer’. The paper specifically locates this episode of English curriculum change in New Zealand in the context of larger debates of decolonising the curriculum.
Bill Green (2026) studied this question.